title: Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for treatment of early- stage non-small cell lung cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the safety, efficacy, and invasiveness of lobectomy by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) in the treatment of stage I/II non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 148 patients presenting with Stage I or II NSCLC were enrolled into our study, comprising 71 who underwent VATS and 77 patients undergoing conventional thoracotomic lobectomy, in combination with systematic lymph node resection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  It was found that VATS was superior to conventional thoracotomy in terms of the duration of surgery, intraoperative blood loss, frequency of the need to administer postoperative analgesia, thoracic intubation indwelling time, post-operative hospital stay, and survival rate (P<0.05). We saw no obvious difference in the number of resected lymph nodes with either approach.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  VATS lobectomy is a safe and reliable surgical approach for the treatment of Stage I/II NSCLC, characterized by significantly minimal invasiveness, rapid post-operative recovery, and markedly lower loss of blood.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic, QiLu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
authors.forename: Xing-Long
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Yu-Xia
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tian
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D002916:Chylothorax / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D008197:Lymph Node Excision / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015996:Survival Rate; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted / Q000009:adverse effects*; D013907:Thoracostomy; D013908:Thoracotomy